Volume
by Weirdly
Summary: Ed's come up with a way to conquer his fear of thunder. Drabblicious.


**_Disclaimer:_ I don't own FMA, as much as I wish I could. sigh**

**_A/N:_ Erm...this...isn't my favorite...but see the endnote for my further complaints about it since...yeah, here you go.**

"Al, get in here and get a towel and some oil," Winry ordered as soon as he stepped into the house: he had just walked a mile in the rain which was more like a waterfall than real rain. "I won't have you dripping all over my floor and then rusting."

"All right," Al replied and took the offered towel, a fluffy white thing. He looked at it for a moment. "Umm…Winry? Could you…?" He pushed it back toward her.

"Oh! Yeah, sure…" Winry grabbed the towel back and started drying Al where his clumsy armor-hands wouldn't reach. She worked in silence for a minute or so, running her hand almost lovingly over the damp metal, and then asked, "Oh, Al, where's Ed?"

"He's still walking. I was supposed to ask you to make some hot chocolate or mulled cider or somethi – " A blinding flash and a long roll of thunder cut him off. " – that's why I went ahead."

"Huh," Winry grunted. "I'll wake up Auntie Pinako or something. Or maybe I'll heat up some milk for him." She grinned, and imagined that if Al had a body he would be grinning back at her with that mischievous shine to his eyes that Ed sometimes got.

"He might drink it then," Al agreed, with that imagined smile in his voice, and it seemed to remind Winry that she had to go because she left him half-dry and holding a soaked towel to run toward the kitchen.

Since Winry was doing something in the kitchen that involved loud clattering of pots and pans – she could never resist the sound of metal – Al carefully opened the door so that his brother could see the light and find his way in. When water gushed over the welcome mat, he hastily closed it back up.

There was another flash and boom, and then another right after it. Unbothered, Al wandered into the kitchen. Winry had a saucepan on the stove full of water, and was fingering her wrench lightly as she glared at it.

"Brother should be here soon," Al said. "We'll probably hear him coming before we see him."

"I heard _you_ coming," a new voice groused, and Al turned to see Pinako trudging into the kitchen. "Lucky I wasn't asleep. What _are_ you making?" She directed the last question at Winry, who had spilled cocoa powder all over the counter and herself.

"Cocoa," she muttered. "For Ed. Because Al walked on ahead of him." This time there was only one lightning-and-thunder set, but the thunder lasted longer than any of the others.

"He told me he didn't want to have to repair me when I got rusty for staying out in the rain too long," Al explained when the thunder had died down. "So I left him with a really good umbrella."

"Right, right," Pinako muttered and lit her pipe. "It's done now," she pointed out to Winry.

"Oh! Thanks!" She carefully lifted the saucepan off the stove after mixing in the cocoa, sugar, and touch of milk to the boiling water.

"So, when will the boy be here?"

"Soon," Al said. Another crash of thunder brought with it a faint shout. "There he is now!"

"Don't get wet again," Winry warned, and leapt up to get the door herself. She opened it and peered outside into the night and the rain. "Al, are you sure?"

"Listen during the next thunder," Al replied from behind her.

They didn't have too long to wait. In about thirty seconds, lightning struck again (they saw the jagged streak in the distance) and thunder sounded.

"I CAN BE LOUDER THAN YOU!" Ed shouted again to the thunder. "I'M LOUDER THAN YOU ARE!"

"There he is," Al said unnecessarily, then added, "he's been yelling at the sky like that for the whole walk."

Winry praised herself on holding in her temper until she got Ed wrapped in a warm towel with a hot cup of cocoa and away from her.

**_A/N(#2!!):_ This very much sucks. I'm sorry. :p I had writer's block, though, and I just needed to get something out.**

**My friend does this shouting at the thunder thing. It's pretty awesome.**


End file.
